Long before I read this book, I read criticisms of it saying that humans cannot rely on intuition because intuition is often clouded by bias. Whoever wrote that obviously didn't read the book - that a huge part of Gladwell's argument. This book isn't really arguing for or against human intuition, but rather an expose of how humans "read" situations in a split second and how that affects us (for better or worse). ( )

I read this book originally in 2006 and am re-reading it now because it is THAT GOOD. I've recommended it to a number of other people who never got around to picking it up, but I urge you to do so. ( )

What a mind-changing book. This is the guy that invented the notion of the "tipping point" in world events. Here he has turned his attention to the role that the unconscious plays in our decision making. He makes no new discoveries of his own (which is his style) but assembles a raft of recent insights and discoveries from a wide catchment. This is an important book to read to discover how our decision making works, or doesn't. It's also a primer for those who work on the dark side - advertising, politics, mass media.

If you want to trust my snap judgment, buy this book: you'll be delighted. If you want to trust my more reflective second judgment, buy it: you'll be delighted but frustrated, troubled and left wanting more.

As a researcher, Gladwell doesn't break much new ground. But he's talented at popularizing others' research. He's a clever storyteller who synthesizes and translates the work of psychologists, market researchers and criminologists.

The author can be simultaneously lively and serious, with particularly good instincts for finding quirky, varied examples to prove his points. But he delivers what is essentially a hybrid of marketing wisdom and self-help - stronger on broad, catchy constructs than on innovative thinking.

The kouros example is effective because it capitalizes on our tendency to generalize from a single positive association, leading to the conclusion that intuition trumps reason. But in this case, a bit of thought would show that conclusion to be unlikely, even within the confined realm of art fakery. Think about how often experts throughout history have been duped by forgers because intuition told them that they were looking at the real thing. It is ironic that Gladwell (knowingly or not) exploits one of the greatest weaknesses of intuition—our tendency to blithely infer cause from anecdotes—in making his case for intuition's extraordinary power.

In September of 1983, an art dealer by the name of Gianfranco Becchina approached the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. (Introduction)

Some years ago, a young couple came to the University of Washington to visit the laboratory of a psychologist named John Gottman.

Quotations

"We have come to confuse information with understanding."

Last words

When the screen created a pure "Blink" moment, a small miracle happened, the kind of small miracle that is always possible when we take charge of the first two seconds: they saw her for who she truly was.

Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.

Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff

How do we think without thinking, seem to make choices in an instant--in the blink of an eye--that actually aren't as simple as they seem? Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, the author reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.… (more)